


...nor so far away.

by iSpitonFire



Series: OG Hat Man, Aleksei/Death, and his husband, Caleb, Life/an ass [5]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: and our fair soul who we've been helpfully stalking is finally fighting back, oops poor guy that's not smart, turns out things are strange in the land of the ghost, two blonds on a mission to find a rogue skater who is WORRYING ALEX
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27806716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iSpitonFire/pseuds/iSpitonFire
Summary: A simple ghost or rather Death himself tries to help a poor drummer find a missing skater.
Series: OG Hat Man, Aleksei/Death, and his husband, Caleb, Life/an ass [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2024077
Comments: 7
Kudos: 9





	1. Two blonds, hopelessly lost

“I’m sorry I wasn’t looking where I was going. I-I’m guessing you’re a ghost? I mean they are the onl\- never mind. Do you? Do you by any chance know a Willie? I’ve been looking for him everywhere and I can’t find him and I’m really worried that something happened. We think we know- uh just do you…do you know…him…?”

He spent a long enough time just staring at the blond’s sad face to watch it fade to disheartened. When the sad soul turned to leave in despair, something inside him broke and Death was pushed aside as his original soul turned to lunge for the young soul’s arm.

“Wait,” he breathlessly stopped him. And then realized he didn’t know what to say. He just knew that he could let this soul leave. Desperate blue eyes connected with slowly growing more hopeful blue eyes. He floundered desperately for words before he went with his often forgotten gut. “Tell me more. I can help.”

The blond blinked at him before shyly looking down. “Uh well Willie, he was helping us and I think he’s in trouble now because I haven’t seen or heard from him in ages,” he trailed off, now uncertain, next to the older blond, who nodded his head.

When it was apparent that the other stopped talking, the older of the two pulled a hat out of his back pocket and put it on the youngers head. “Well, I’m…” He stopped realizing he didn’t know his own name. It had been so long since he last had a name. He coughed. “You can call me D.”

“Uh, Alex? Hi.” He introduced himself awkwardly, due to his confusion around the other’s introduction.

D was about to say something when someone walked through the both of them and he pulled Alex out of the middle of the road to stand next to a nearby building. “Well, Alex, what does this Willie look like?”

“Oh well.” Alex light up. “He has long beautiful black hair that he normally keeps down but looks really good up too, big brown eyes that you can easily get lost in, he’s a little shorter than me and always skating around all-”

“Wait,” D interrupted. “Skating? All the time?” Alex started nodding before D continued and then he was confused. “The one with the pale yellow and dark blue soul? Hold on. Isn’t he your soulmate?”

Alex turned bright red. “I- I wouldn’t well I wouldn’t call us _soulmates_ exactly, I mean we are friends and also souls but uh the soul thing? The color thing? Not sure what you mean by that?”

D tilted his head. “Can you not see the color of souls?”

Alex’s eyes bugged out. “You can see soul colors?”

“Can’t everyone?” He shrugged.

“No!”

“Oh.” He pressed his lips together, momentarily looking away from Alex before turning back to him. “Well…let’s find Willie then.”

Alex straightened up. “Yeah. How?”

“If I remember correctly I see his soul skating often on the same stretch of road in Hollywood. By the Orpheum.”

Alex deflated, . “I’ve checked there often.”

“Hmm. Well, I suppose all that’s left is the mistakes club,” D said, distractedly, looking in the direction of the club.

“Wait you mean Caleb’s club?”

D flinched. “Is…is that the mistake’s name?” He hesitantly asked to Alex’s confusion before shaking his head. “The flamboyant club with the stolen, captured souls. It’s the only place I can think of to find him. I was meaning to yell at him for what he did to the band that…recently…played at the Orpheum.”

Alex’s eyes widened. “Wait. Which band?”

“The ones with the ghosts.” He shrugged before pausing and giving the surprised Alex a once over. “Oh. Your band.”

“Uh yeah. Were you there?”

“Yes. You were one of my favorite bands. Reminds me of…of…” He was squinting at nothing.

Alex looked around in confusion. “Uh, are you alright?”

D hummed, not paying attention to him. Alex waved a hand in front of his face. D blinked and turned to him.

“I think I am very old. We should go bother the mistake now.”

“Okaaay,” Alex said, uncertainly. He opened his mouth to say something else, before shrugging and deciding to leave it be. D looked at him for a moment before leading the way to the club.


	2. One blond is very new and the other blond is very old

“So uh…” Alex started, a half-hour into their walk. “Why aren’t we poofing into the club?”

“Poofing isn’t a good idea. Not there,” D said, shaking his head.

Alex turned to him. “Why?”

“ _He_ always knows who enters. It’s best to walk and be a surprise.” D stared forward resolutely.

“Okay, but why can’t we poof closer?”

D stopped. He turned to Alex, who stopped with him, and stared.

And stared.

And stared.

“Oh.”

“Oh?” Alex asked when it was apparently the D wasn’t going to say anything else.

“Ah. Well. I…right there is a gas station off the road from it. Yes. Do you know how to travel together?”

“Like follow someone or travel to the same place?”

D shook his head. “No. What you are talking about involves a connection between souls. I am talki-” D cut himself off when he noticed Alex’s confusion.

“What do you mean a connection between souls?”

“Ah,” D said, pulling Alex toward the nearest building. “When you follow or travel to the same place with little thought you are following a soul you are connected to. If you are close with the person, or have a strong connection to them, it is easier to poof there without thought. Going someplace you’ve never been takes effort as does following a soul you are not connected with.”

“I guess I never gave it much thought before.”

“Once poofing is figured out, many don’t. Much of being a ghost is instinct with some learning.”

“Huh,” Alex said, leaning against the building as he processed.

D patted his shoulder. “If I cannot answer more of your questions, my Hat Club will help you. Just wear the hat and they will check-in.”

“Your what?”

“My Hat Club. Similar to what the mistake is doing in we both gathered ghosts, however, I do not deal with lifers and my ghosts are free.”

Alex pulled the simple black hat off his head and looked at it. “So by keeping this…?”

“You will be marked as a part of the club and should you or your friends need help, we will be there for you.”

Alex shrunk back a little as he looked up at D. “I never mentioned any friends.”

D raised an eyebrow. “Is Willie not a friend? And are you not in a band?”

Alex looked a little sheepish. “Yeah…wait how do you know about the band?”

“I…” D brought up a hand to his head as if he had a headache. An impossibility for a ghost. “I…don’t know. But I think you…in…two…”

“Yeah. Sunset Curve and Julie and the Phantoms,” Alex whispered as he got a little closer to the older ghost. “Are you okay?”

D shut his eyes and groaned a little. “Don’t agree to anything, kid, it never works out alright.”

“Agree to…okay?”

D let out a bigger groan before sighing. He opened his eyes and nodded his head. “Right. Are you ready to travel with someone?”

“Sure? Wait is this going to be one of those things I shouldn’t agree to?” Alex asked, taking a step back.

“Nah,” D laughed. “This won’t be a permanent thing. Although, you should be careful to not travel with someone you don’t trust. They could lead you to a trap.” D shrugged and offered Alex his hand.

“Being a ghost is so complicated,” Alex grumbled as he accepted D’s hand.

“People who say death is less complicated never died,” D agreed. He squeezed Alex’s hand and then they were off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My bad to the people I told that I'd post yesterday. I forgot.


	3. A smile and a blackout.

Just outside of the Hollywood Ghost Club (and ghost hotel) is a run-down gas station. The gas station itself is so run down it appears to be haunted more than the normally lively building next door that houses ghosts.

Really for something that was new only forty years ago, it shouldn’t be so run down. And yet…

“Oh, that’s not much better,” Alex said the second they poofed into the gas station parking lot. “Why is the tingling so much worse.” He shuddered and shook out his arms.

“As long as there is no burning sensation, you’re fine,” D dismissed, walking away from the now horrified teen behind him.

“Burning? What burning?”

Without skipping a beat, D turned around to face him. “Sometimes when poofing with another, it can burn. We never figured out why. So far there haven’t been any cases of poofing by oneself that causes burning but you never know.” D shrugged and turned back around.

Alex stared after the walking figure before groaning. “Come on,” he whispered before raising his voice. “Wait up!”

D barely slowed down as Alex ran to get caught up. The walk to the club was silent. However, the closer they got, the closer Alex walked to, and then behind, D.

And the closer they got, the more D’s head hurt.

Finally, they arrived at the entrance. The six-plus story building was oddly quiet as they approached, with more lights off than on. A very unusual occurrence for the Hollywood Ghost Club (and Hotel).

Both ghosts stopped at the door, afraid to be the one to open it.

“So, uh are you gonna open it or…?” Alex asked.

D made a disgruntled noise before taking a small step forward. However, before he could get closer the door opened and a tall man in a black jacket opened the door only to stop short at the sight of the two hatted blonds.

“Good sir,” D acknowledged with a tip of his hat. “We are here for your master and Willie respectively.”

The new ghost blinked at them both and was about to respond when Alex pulled his hat off and stepped closer to D. “Dante right? It’s me, Alex. We met a couple of weeks ago?”

Dante took a step back before glancing around quickly and then leaving the building, forcing the other two to stop back. “Look Caleb’s not here. I can try and get Willie, but Beatrice has a stronghold on the building since Caleb left and I’m not even sure if she’ll let him out of the building. She’s been…weird about him since Caleb left.”

“Weird how,” D asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Just…weird. He hasn’t been allowed to leave and she checks upon him more than anyone else.”

“But he’s okay?” Alex firmly asked, stepping closer.

Dante softened. “He’s sad and won’t talk about it. Maybe hearing that a friend is looking for him will cheer him up.”

Alex hesitated for a second. “Tell him Alex said that we are all okay and that they are gone.”

Dante nodded once and moved to go back in when D grabbed his arm causing him to look back. “Dante, you said _he_ is gone. Gone where?”

“No one knows. He just left Beatrice in charge.”

“Is she kind?”

Dante’s brows furrowed. “She’s a little weird. She died back when the hotel was an asylum and has a strange attachment to Willie, Alice, and Camerón. When she’s in charge they are watched more often than the rest of us. Caleb doesn’t like it when we leave for too long if he isn’t here.”

“But you are all safe?” D very calmly but firmly asked.

Dante looked bewildered by D’s questioning. “Yes.”

D searched Dante’s face for something before releasing his arm and stepping away. Dante’s confusion caused him to hesitate before he went back into the building.

“Do you think they are in danger?” Alex quietly asked staring at the hotel. He was absentmindedly rubbing his chest.

D looked back at Alex, noticed the rubbing, before turning back to the building. “The problem with this club is I never know. No one ever knows. Everything that happens is on _his_ whim.”

“What a horrible way to live,” Alex whispered.

“We aren’t living,” D reminded him. “But yes, it is a terrible way to exist. Do you want to stay here or come back another day?”

Alex finally turned away from watching the club to face D. “I really want to stay, but I told Julie I’d be back when it got dark and…” He helplessly looked toward the setting sun.

D grimaced in sympathy. If there was one thing he knew, it was that there was little worse than fighting your basic instinct toward a loved one, especially when it is related to a promise to another loved one.

…Although it must have been a long time since he felt that way. After all, outside of his club, he is alone.

…Right?

Alex sighed. “I’ll just come back tomorrow and try again.”

D shook his head to clear it. “I-” he took a deep break- “uh I can come back with you.”

Alex was quiet for a few minutes as he considered the offer. “Are you sure?” He asked breaking the silence, and surprising D. “You don’t seem oka-”

The rest of what Alex had to say was cut off as the hotel door slammed open. Both ghosts jumped at the sound and turned to the building in surprise.

There was loud yelling coming from inside, someone telling the figure to come back.

The figure who opened the door’s soul which was the palest of dark blues and palest of pale yellows was slowly brightening to its typical, far more lovely and vibrant dark blue and pale yellow.

A smile was threatening to overtake his face.

The younger of the two blond’s face was brightening along with his soul.

The older of the two blond’s face has lost any color whatsoever.

And his vision started going spotty when a small frail older woman came into view and pulled the smiling ghost out of the doorway.

And his hearing must have gone because he couldn’t hear a single word they were saying.

And

t

h

e

n

the world

t

u

r

n

e

d.

And all was dark.


	4. Aleksei Covington, it’s time to wake up now.

The thing about existence is it’s shaped by our reality and memories. If you don’t remember who you are and what you have experienced, you are running on muscle memory and the pathways that were formed in your brain. And your reality is whatever you were told or whatever you experience. If you were alone when you came to, well…your reality is what you carve.

And sometimes it’s wrong.

And sometimes that was the purpose.

However, the human brain, whether dead or living, is one of the, if not the, most resilient parts of a person.

This can be a good or a bad thing.

Little things, the smallest things you might not even consider or realize, can be a trigger for a memory or experience or sensation. It can as big as a location or as small as a specific scent and as soon as you interact with it, you are reminded of a particular event.

And sometimes you are running around town seeing and experiencing everything you once had; seeing people you once knew, and are none the wiser.

And then.

Well, and then you see something that almost perfectly replicates something you once saw and suddenly.

Suddenly reality must reconstruct itself because some memories are so powerful they can overcome the strongest and oldest magic.

Even if it’s just a little.

“-lex…thought...was gone!…find him?”

“-n’t know who?”

“Al-…ith Caleb… in love.”

“…love?!…hates….”

“…not…each other…same sinc-”

…

“…child?”

“… ask…himself as…confused…he was…ghosts even…”

“No? What?”

“I don’t…know he seemed…he introduced...”

“…don’t understand…no history of ghost amnesia.

“That is not…William.”

“What?”

“There…cases. It happens…forget themselves. The Covington’s.”

“Bea?”

“…young ones from the truth. But now is…time. We must wake up Sir Aleksei.”

“Sir?”

“Aleksei Covington, it’s time to _wake up **now**_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Dialogue.
> 
> “Oh my God. D!”
> 
> “Oh sh- Is he okay? Wait. Aleksei? Alex how I don’t we thought he was gone! How did you find him?”
> 
> “D? He found me. I don’t know who?”
> 
> “Aleksei died with Caleb. They were in love.”
> 
> “In love?! D hates Caleb.”
> 
> “What? No that’s not right they love each other. Caleb hasn’t been the same since Aleksei disappeared.”
> 
> “Well if they did D doesn’t remember.”
> 
> “What does that stand for, child?”
> 
> “I didn’t ask. It’s what he introduced himself as. He seemed confused and kept looking like he was getting headaches? Can ghosts even get headaches?”
> 
> “No? What?”
> 
> “I don’t know! I just know he seemed confused when he introduced himself.”
> 
> “That’s. I don’t understand. We have no history of ghost amnesia.
> 
> “That is not completely true, William.”
> 
> “What?”
> 
> “There have been cases. It happens when ghosts forget themselves. The Covington’s saw it more than I.”
> 
> “Bea?”
> 
> “We tried to protect you young ones from the truth. But now is not the time. We must wake up Sir Aleksei.”
> 
> “Sir?”
> 
> “Aleksei Covington, it’s time to wake up now.”


End file.
